Fatwa No : 117728

Combining prayers during rain is peculiar to the congregation

Fatwa Date : Safar 6, 1430 / 2-2-2009

Question

Once while it was snowing, I made salaatu-z-zuhr in jamaa'ah, but the jamaa'ah did not combine salaatul 'asr with it. So, I made salaatul 'asr myself right after salaatu-z-zuhr since I had some business to carry out afterwards that I thought would make the performance of salaatul 'asr at its right time difficult. What do you say about this?

Answer

All perfect praise be to Allaah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allaah, and that Muhammad is His slave and Messenger.

Combining Thuhr and ‘Asr prayers because of rain is a controversial issue among the jurists . The view we adopt here in Islamweb is that this is permissible but it is not permissible for a person who prays individually to combine two prayers because of rain, because the Sharee’ah permitted combining two prayers due to rain for the difficulty of going to the mosque twice in a rainy weather, and out of urging to observe the prayers in congregation. However, this reason which permits combining the prayers is not available in regard to an individual person because he is not praying in congregation, and there is no difficulty for him since he will pray individually. Therefore, you were wrong in combining the prayer individually (on your own) and you are obliged to make it up.